Weekend update: Now who’s the jackass?

• OK, all you studios who are too afraid to show your horror/grossout comedy/violent, video-game-based flick to the critics: Aren’t you feeling a little bit stupid this morning?

If ever there was a film that was presold to its audience, it was “jackass number two.” The studios usually argue that these kind of films don’t depend on reviews, and exposing them to critical scorn can only hurt the box office and waste valuable promotional money that can be spent elsewhere. My argument has been: If they truly are critic-proof, what can it hurt?

‘jackass number two’ may be full or moronic stunts, but its marketing was brilliant  screen it for critics, yet sell it based on the critics’ hatred of its 2002 predecessor. The pitch was, Hey critics! If you hated “Jackass,” you’ll despise the sequel! And since critics all hate the movies that fans love (or so they think) …

Anyway, the strategy worked. “jackass number two” topped the weekend box office with $28.1 million, finishing far ahead of the runner-up, “Jet Li’s Fearless.” It paid for itself (it was made for $11.5 million) in one day. “Young men were clearly starved for a film that was scatological, simplistic and crude,” Van Toffler, president of MTV’s music and film group, told the New York Daily News. “Johnny Knoxville and the crew were able to provide it.”

But what’s really amazing is, the film wasn’t universally panned. It scored a respectable 62 on the Tomatometer at www.rottentomatoes.com (60 is considered the cutoff between “fresh” and “rotten” ratings). Granted, the score seems a bit inflated by on-line critics, but a fair amount of mainstream critics liked it, including, shockingly, the New York Times. Listen…do you hear hell freezing over?

• Here’s my new strategy: The best way to avoid the Weekender cover jinx is to pretend like it’s a foregone conclusion. That’s why I wrote that Shakira was sure to sprain her butt the night before last Friday’s AT&T Center concert. But she didn’t, and the show went on. And Bill Maher, whose mug graced the front page, didn’t get a sudden attack of laryngitis or political correctness. He showed up and put on a good show Saturday.

So to Carol Burnett, who’s doing her talk-with-the-audience thing Sunday in the Majestic: Break a leg. And here’s wishing the Cheetah Girls an acne outbreak. OK, glad that’s out of the way. Everything should go smoothly now.

• Since most concerts these days are tightly scripted, it’s refreshing to hear that some bands are willing to improvise when the mood strikes. Conexion Editor Raul Flores reported that contemporary Christian band Audio Adrenaline, which was sharing a bill with MercyMe Friday night at Municipal, was so enamored with the mariachi group that played for them as they were eating at a Mexican restaurant that afternoon, they invited them to join them at the show.

The group serenaded folks as they were finding their seats, then later joined Audio A on stage for what had to be a novel rendering of the band’s big, big hit, “Big House.” You generally don’t see “contemporary Christian” and “mariachi trumpets” in the same sentence.